The Overlord and the Vassel
by Sonadow
Summary: Laharl slowly understands that the special someone he always craved for had always been there for him all the while. Laharl x Etna fic. Be warned: Laharl is not exactly 100% in-character for this fic. You will understand why as the chapters start coming i
1. Chapter 1

If there was one thing the young demon prince and recently crowned Overlord of the Netherworld absolutely hated about his own Netherworld, it was the pesky fact that some wisecrack of a predecessor apparently thought that it was an ingenious idea to merge human ideals with demon ones. The unholy alliance of merger of ideals had led to what was known to all as the Dark Assembly, and Laharl had nothing but the deepest contempt for it. And it did not require a genius to see why the young Overlord was so pissed with the hopelessly flawed excuse of a democracy: every single last member of the Dark Senate, be it a pesky little imp who would have been squashed if not for the fact that it was always the first to fly out of danger, or the huge hulking golem that was seemingly content to doze off during all of Laharl's proposals, had one thing in common: all were disgustingly corrupt. Even the young overlord could find no words in his vocabulary to describe the extent of corruption that had seized the Dark Senate.

And he had every reason to be mad: just about every bill and request that the young overlord had proposed to the Dark Senate had been turned down, stalled or rejected on the spot, some for the most ridiculous reasons that that even an idiot with half a brain cell would snort at the pathetic excuse of an explanation. Proposal to use the castle Treasury to purchase better equipment and weapons from Rozen Queen for his combat vassals and frontline infantry, who would probably be doing even greater damage with toy weapons made out of plastic? Nay, because the senators feared 'insufficient transparency of how the funds would be managed appropriately and the costs of upgrading the vassals combat equipment outweigh the benefits'. Request for a cable TV system for all the servants and vassals in the castle? Nay, because of unfounded worries that 'vassals may use the services to access information that may be classified to the Netherworld's security systems'. That was, if Laharl's Netherworld even had the funds to implement any security systems to begin with. Bill for the acquirement of a massive fleet of soldiers and combat aircraft to deter any possible invasion of the Netherworld? Nay again, because the Senate were confident that no one would be dumb enough to invade the Overlord's Netherworld, conveniently forgetting what happened just a few hundred years back with the EDF and the in Overlord of an alternate Netherworld., and he, the PRINCE, got his own royal butt kicked so hard that even his scheming vassals had to abandon their plans for a coup d-etat just to drive that 'Overlord' out of their Netherworld before the possibility of the young prince getting killed in action became too real to brush off. And lastly, his proposal to invade Baal's hideout and put an end to the undisputed Lord of Terror once and for all? Complete and unanimous NAY from the Dark Senate, claiming that the young Overlord should stop wasting time on his campaigns and focus on handling the internal affairs of the Netherworld., as he was no match for the Lord of Terror. This was the biggest joke of all, because the Dark senate were already blocking all his bids and proposals for the administration of the Netherworld's day-to-day happenings. In addition to that cruel irony, the young prince had grown in strength and power, up to the point that he had already given Baal a royal trashing not just once, but a total of THREE times, once in the Cave of ordeals, and yet again with some help of the self-proclaimed 'most Baddass freakin Overlord in the Cosmos' who essentially did nothing except to open his pages and bark orders like a pathetic loser, and more recently, yet another time where he actually had the almighty Lord of Terror reduced to running away for his life like a wounded puppy that had been bullied by some young demons, until that run-in with the punk Mao distracted him long enough for the Lord of Terror to make his escape. And here they were, telling HIM that he was no match for that excuse of a Lord of Terror?

What a bunch of idiots.

Of course, young as he may be, the young Overlord was not ignorant to the methods of gaining support from the Dark Senate. In the past, prior to every session called, the young price could easily be seen heaving a huge sack of spare items that his vassals could spare, which would later be used as 'gifts', or more appropriately, bribes, to certain influential senators in a bid to get them to vote for a Yay instead of a Nay. It worked for awhile, but then, being the greedy, fat and corrupted demons that they were, the demands for favours and gifts swiftly escalated up to a point where the young Overlord decided that enough was enough, and ceased the practise of 'gift-distributing' completely. Naturally, this did not go well with the decadent senators, who, aggravated at losing a potential secondary source of income, swore right there and then to block every last one of Laharl's proposals, regardless of whether the proposals had any merit to them or not. And many a times, he young Overlord was tempted to just shove the notion of democracy right into one of those vulgar openings of those senators in the Assembly and pass his proposals in the good old fashioned way: with a bigass fireball, a large sword and LOTS of blood, limbs and heads flying around the Assembly grounds. And it was entirely possible: even if those old foggies of a Senator were several thousand years older than him, he was the freaking Overlord with the fighting power and strength to back his title. If those senators thought that they had the advantage of numbers against him, they would be sorely mistaken, and by the time that happened, the Assembly would probably be in dire need of a new paintjob and furniture. Then again, blood made excellent paint substitutes, don't they? Pure red in color and thick enough to withstand even the toughest stains. Gotta love those spilled blood.

He should have learnt his lessons by now, but the young Overlord was not one to just give up when the odds were stacked against him. Like it or not, he would go before the Dark Assembly to propose for the same bills that had been on his list of 'must-do' for the past century or longer. Not because he wanted to, but because he HAD to. Even though most would describe him as an arrogant, self-centered, egotistical and bratty Overlord at his best, the young demon did not relish the fact that his vassals were potentially sitting ducks in combat with their hopelessly old and outclassed equipment that had seen better days centuries ago, nor the prospect for having his Netherworld crumble before another invasion because there were no defence forces to engage the invaders. And he was still going to push for the cable TV proposal: it didn't take him too long to learn that 20-hour workdays with 0 leave or off-days allowed was driving more than a third of his vassals insane: the least he could do was to provide them with a proper form of entertainment, if only to keep them from thinking of pulling off a coup against him or organizing a protest for better working conditions. Of course, he had quietly increased their take-home pay gradually as well: welfare may not be enough to quell discontentment within the vassals, but money almost always does the trick, and what better way than to buy their loyalty with a fatter paycheck? The young overlord smirked to himself as he recalled how wide his flame-haired vassal's eyes opened when he handed out her salary for the month: he swore that they were practically as wide as dinner plates. And just a couple of hours before that, she was complaining to the others that he would just cut their paychecks on a whim just to buy the latest video game or movie that he fancied.

_In your face, Etna_, he thought as he picked up his enchanted scarf and tied it around his slender frame before leaving the comfortable confines of his bedroom. Today was the day the young Overlord would go before the Dark Assembly yet again to plead his case for his proposals to be passed, and the title of Overlord did not grant one immunity from turning up late for the Assembly, since he had to pull some strings (and a few threats) to force the Assembly to call this session on a weekend. It sounded like an extremely bad move to make considering how most of the Senators have aligned themselves against him, but the young Overlord clung on to the tiny bit of hope that with enough 'persuasion', the Senators may just get so tired of being summoned every so often and pass his proposals, if only just to stop him from bothering them. He was just about to give Pleinair her orders when that all-too-familiar voice rang throughout the old castle.

"Denka……"

Laharl just cursed inwardly and turned around to face his less-than-modestly dressed vassal. "Etna, I'm busy. So find something to entertain yourself, ok? And if it's about the Prinnies' salary, just pay them out of YOUR pocket first and claim it back from me later.."

She cut him off before he could continue with his ranting. "That's not what I came here for. And the Prinnies' payday is 2 weeks from now, so that's not the issue either."

"So what the hell do you want? If you have nothing to do, then go and train that whole lot of vassals that are content with rotting around the castle doing nothing except playing their own dumb little card game. Their weapons are already hopelessly outdated and useless, and yet not a single one is willing to implement a training regiment for those good-for-nothing slackers. You just wait: I bet even a single HUMAN soldier can take down at least 3 of my vassals without the slightest effort, all because they are too lazy to bother about their survival!" Laharl spat, his disgust and irritation finally starting to surface after suffering in silence for far too long. "And that goddamned ASS-sembly just plain refuses to see THAT!"

Etna just gave him a slight smile. "Your highness, you don't have to worry about that: I have sent my best student to start training those bunch of slackers, and if all goes well, those useless bums will be back to their fighting form within a couple of months or so, give or take. Of course, I'll see to it personally that they improve their combat levels and proficiency as well, and not just remaining stagnant at their current form. With any luck, they should be at the same levels as my student after that intensive training phase I have all planned out for them. But that will only work if YOU stop running yourself into the ground trying to convince the Senate to see your way. It'll never happen."

Laharl growled. "I have a job to do as Overlord and if I cannot even convince the Assembly to grant the funding required to upgrade my vassals' weapons, or to provide some 'welfare' for them, then I will say that I don't deserve to be the freaking OVERLORD!" he almost shouted. With that he turned away from her and shifted his attention to Pleinair. "The Dark Assembly…."

"Wait!"

"What now, Etna?!"

She turned away for a moment, seemingly embarrassed, before suddenly stalking right up to the young Overlord, pushing him into the cage and joining him in it. "Etna?! What the hell are you doing?"

She stared at him, her red eyes burning with determination, signifying that he had no say in the matter. "I'll come with you to the Assembly. And this time, you just sit down and rest. I'll be the one who will address the Senators this time."


	2. Chapter 2

"Etna-sannn....Etna-sannn...are you there?" A familiar little figure with blond hair and a white corset suddenly poked her head into the Beauty Queen's room. "Etna-san, have you seen Laharl-san? I accidentally flushed my paycheck down the toilet again so I need him to write a new one for me..." she stopped when she finally realized that the room was totally empty and that she was essentially talking to thin air. Although one would be forgiven for thinking that she would gave gotten used to it, considering how half of the young demons in her class are always snoozing off during her lessons on live, while the other half were usually busy trying to put themselves out of their misery by attempting to fire a pistol into their skull. (But of course, there would always be a few 'model' demons who paid attention to their lessons.)

_Guess she's not in. That's odd. Etna-san never leaves her room unless Laharl-san calls for her._ The fallen angel wondered to herself as she was about to turn back and leave when she spotted something out of place in the room: there, just neatly under the corner of Etna's bed, was an ever so slight bulge and an ever so tiny bedsheet rumple that most people would have already dismissed it as nothing more than an improperly-made bed. But the fallen angel had enough experience of snooping around in both the Netherworld and Celestia to know what was the difference between an improperly-made bed and a poorly-concealed stash of...something. Hey, she was the great Flonne, spreader of Love and Harmony, Fallen Angel AND wannabe Ninja! Nothing ever escapes her keen razor-sharp eyes! Ok, maybe except for the one time where she was so 'attuned' to her non-existent ninja skills that she had walked right straight into his bedroom to assassinate him under orders from the Seraph while the demon prince was still very much awake and active. Or when she was so deep in slumber that even that hopeless excuse of an angel known as Vulcanus was able to remove her pendent without her knowing. Or when she was not able to tell a red prinny apart from a typical blue prinny. Or...

In other words, to keep thing short and mean, she was nothing more than a useless ditz. Even up till today, what Laharl saw in her remained a complete mystery to everybody. In fact, it was probably a mystery even to the young demon prince as well.

Except that she didn't know when to quit. And now, here she was, ruffling under the bedsheets of what must be the most feared vassal in the entire castle. In any typical situation, an unfortunate victim found in Etna's room without any permission was usually never heard or seen of again, literally and physically. Even the great Overlord Laharl had to yield to her at times. But the fallen angel didn't bother with these kind of trifling details: getting to the stash was more important than anything else.

So intent was she on searching through the Beauty Queen's bed that she did not notice or hear the slight pattering of footsteps that were growing closer every second, or the ominous shadow that was increasing in size behind her. Apparently, it seemed that whenever angels are set upon a task, they lose themselves into their own little world. And this was precisely one of these moments.

"Found it!" she happily exclaimed, drawing out an elaborate wooden box no bigger than the size of a CD case, but a lot more thicker. "I wonder what's in it...," she mused, shaking the box gently just to be sure that there were no glass items or anything fragile stashed away inside that elaborate box. After a few seconds of that, the fallen angel decided that it was safe enough to open the box: its contents sounded like thick wads of paper, and it was easy for the fallen angel to deduce that the box did not contain money: Etna was too strung-up over cash to leave it lying around haphazardly in her room. Especially after the great 'Overlord'' Baal had successfully made off with her 1 billion HL savings: the so-called Beauty Queen literally turned the whole castle upside down in a futile attempt to find her lost cash. Needless to say, the hospital staff were extremely busy on that day, working well past their usual hours to heal the unfortunate victims of Etna's rage. She should know how it felt to be working overtime: the hospital had approached her for help at the last minute since the clerics were too exhausted to perform anymore healings. And even though she had large amounts of magical energy at her disposal, no doubt due to her former angel status, by the time the last victim was properly healed and taken care off, Flonne was so tired that she felt that it would require at least a whole 8-day nap to recover all that lost energy spent on healing magic.

She pushed the negative thoughts off her head and concentrated on her prize: the wooden bx that she now held in her hands, completely oblivious to the fact that the shadow behind her was looming larger and larger than it had ever been. Flonne had half-expected the box to be secured by a lock or by some form of contraption, given Etna's secretive nature, so she was quite surprised when the box simply popped open without the slightest effort, spilling its contents onto the large bed. A whole stack of...

"Photos?" Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, the fallen angel picked up a piece and gasped to herself. "Oh...my...there are all..." She rummaged through Etna's entire stash quickly, feeling her face starting to become much hotter. "These are all pictures of Laharl-san...oh no..." She could feel her face becoming as hot and red as a ripe tomato as she came across a few...rather disturbing shots of the young Overlord. But for the most part, the majority of the pictures were not THAT disturbing as she had feared: some of them were actually downright cute and adorable, showcasing his childlike innocence which the young Overlord constantly tried to insist that he had ditched after the death of his mother. Hah! But she knew better! "_I wonder if Etna-san would mind if i keep this one for myself: this is just too cute for words..."_

"Oh, she will mind very much, Flonne," came an all-too-familiar voice from right behind her, causing the fallen angle to jump up in the air with a terrified squeak before landing painfully on her butt. "owww...Etna-san! You shouldn't be scaring others like that!" she scolded, conveniently forgetting that she was already the one in trouble for entering the Beauty Queen''s room without her permission. "People with weak hearts can get shocked and die, you know?! I...Etna-san are you alright? You...you're hurt!" Indeed, the flame-haired vassal was looking positively worse for wear: her hair was a mess, there were cuts, scrapes and gashes all over her, and more importantly, her clothes, if you would call them clothes to begin with, were so badly tattered that they practically did nothing to preserve her modesty. (although it should be pointed out that it was common knowledge in the castle that one does not usually use the words 'modesty' and 'Etna' in the same sentence.)

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Flonne," came the sarcastic, albeit tired answer from Etna. "Now perhaps you can tell me what are you doing in my room?"

Flonne just smiled brightly. "Oh, you know, i accidentally flushed my paycheck down the toilet so i decided to ask Laharl-san to help me write another one. But he wasn't in his room and none of the prinnies or the vassals have seen him around so i thought that Etna-san might know where he was. But you were not in so i was about to leave when i say this tiny rumple under your bed." At that, she giggled. "You know, Etna-san, you really should put your things away more properly: someone with ninja skills like me are able to sense what's not right in a room by just looking around. And you know, i found your little box of photographs. Laharl is so cute and innocent, isn't he? Uhh...oops, wait, i wasn't supposed to say that," she suddenly stopped, realizing that she had just about confessed everything that she wasn't supposed to be doing to Etna., who just rolled her eyes.

"You're quite the dense one, you know that?"

At that, Flonne stiffened. "My!" she exclaimed, hands on her hips, looking as though she was ready to blow a fuse. "How rude can you be, Etna-san, calling your own fellow vassal dense! You should apologize! Being a demon is no excuse to neglect basic manners!"

"I think a vassal who enters another vassal's room and searches her stuff without permission is the ruder one, isn't it?"

That did the trick: the fallen angel immediately backed down from her rhetoric of 'love and manners'. "Yeah..." she mumbled, feeling embarrassed. "You're right. I should be the one apologizing." Then, almost immediately, she perked up again as though nothing ever happened at all. "So can i keep this picture of Laharl-san? Please?" she implored, with that large puppy-dog red eyes of hers. "Laharl-san is too cute for words! This picture is proof that Laharl-san has lots of love and care within him!"

Before she could blink, Etna had already reached out and snatched the photograph out from her hands. "Oh NO, you don't. The last time I gave you one of those, you went and showed it to ALL the demons in your class, and guess what? That little brat was immediately on my case, declaring that 'There's only ONE demon in this whole damned castle who would have the guts to take that kind of paparazzi shots', and he made a royal mess of my room trying to find out where i concealed the rest of my stash. And i sure as hell don't want to have a front-row ticket to 'Face the Wrath of the Overlord, Part 2'!"

"But that shot of Laharl-san is so cute..."

"Too bad. Get your own camera or photographer then. "

The fallen angel sniffled. "You're mean...Etna-san." Then, seemingly remembering what she came here for, she looked up again. "So...where's Laharl-san? Is he around? I need that paycheck to buy the latest Prism Rangers DVD boxset and the new Stuffed Mummy Netherworld Limited Edition 666 v2."

The flame-haired demon bit her lip. "This probably isn't a very good time to see him, Flonne."

"Why? Is Laharl-san busy? Don't worry, I won't take long! I promise! I mean, how long does it take to write a paycheck?" At that, the Beauty Queen almost felt that talking to Flonne was akin to talking to a wall or a cow: apparently, the fallen angel's capacity for comprehension was practically a big fat zero.

"Nevermind, I'll take you there."

"Ok! But...Etna-san...shouldn't you get...you know...some clothes on first?" Indeed, considering how tattered and torn her outfit was, she was practically walking around the place naked.

"Who cares...this is the Netherworld...modesty does not mean anything/"

"Urm...Etna-san? Why are we going to the hospital? Ohh, i get it! Laharl-san is doing charity work there. Isn't he? I knew that he has love in him after all! Aww...this is so touching...the Overlord putting aside his duties to assist the sick in healing and getting better...this i MUST tell my students."

Etna just rolled her eyes. "right...i'm sure." She suddenly stopped at one of the beds. "Ok, We're here." Lying on the bed was a young demon with blue hair and two long hair antennae, a long red scarf that seems to be totally matted in blood, wearing just a pair of red shorts. The 'boy' was in an extremely sorry state, having looked as though he had just be trashed around by some big bullies. But what was interesting about this little demon kid was the fact that he looked very similar to a certain Overlord that everyone knew so well.

"Hey, this boy looks like Laharl-san...i didn't know Laharl-san had a brother, does he?" The beauty queen literally had to strangle herself, lest she went ballistic and unleashed her frustration on the hopelessly naive fallen angel. When she finally managed to speak, her eyes were blazing with pure, unbridled fury.

"No, you idiot! That's the Prince right down there, lying on the bed, totally beaten up so badly until almost unrecognizable! And this was all because of the damned corrupted Dark Senate! If not for the Prince, i would have killed every last senator present at that assembly already! How dare they do this to the Prince, even when he was totally unarmed! I swear in the name of Krichevskoy, that I will pay them back double for what they have done!"


End file.
